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Milk Soup

A creamy soup made from celery, onions, turnips, milk, water, wheatmeal, egg, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By T. R. Allinson · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and turnip are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,418 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Milk Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the vegetable base

  1. Chop the onions, turnips, and celery.

  2. Boil them in water until quite tender.

  3. Rub the cooked vegetables through a sieve, return the whole to the saucepan.

  4. Add pepper and salt.

Thicken the soup

  1. Rub the wheatmeal smooth in the milk.

  2. Let the soup simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Serve.

Finish with milk and egg

  1. Boil 1-1/4 pints of milk.

  2. Add the sugar.

  3. Beat the egg with the remaining milk and mix the wheatmeal smooth with it.

  4. Stir this mixture into the boiling milk.

  5. Add the sultanas.

  6. Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

317Calories
17 gProtein
14 gFat
33 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Turnip1 medium (122g)34
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By T. R. Allinson. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Onion + turniptop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Turnip + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,252 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Milk
Provides the liquid base and creamy body of the soup.
Allinson fine wheatmeal
Its starch thickens the milk as it heats, giving the soup body.
Egg
Beaten into the milk, it helps enrich and thicken the soup.
Onions
Add savoury depth and aroma as they soften in the cooking water.
Turnips
Cooked and sieved, they add body and a mild sweetness to the soup.
Celery
Cooked and sieved, it adds body and a fresh, savoury aroma.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg and wheatmeal mixture into the boiling milk. Wheatmeal should be fully smooth before it goes in, so it does not form lumps. The egg can curdle or scramble if it meets very hot milk too quickly, so stir steadily while adding it.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (celery, milk, turnip, egg, pepper):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against celery, milk, turnip, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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